Golf is a particularly demanding sport insofar as the form and consistency of a player's swing is concerned. Mastery of the game involves an arsenal of skills, all based upon a sequence of coordinated movements of the entire body, which collectively make up "the swing". After addressing the ball, a properly executed swing starts with a backswing, to a position wherein the club head is taken up and back around to a point above and behind the opposite shoulder. The backswing ends with the wrists being cocked and the players body rotated to bring the club and the target point into the same, generally vertical plane. Then, without raising his or her head, the club head is brought around to strike the ball. The motion generally retraces the backstroke motions and path except that the wrists are uncocked at the bottom of the swing so as to impart maximum velocity to the club head at the point of impact. There are other factors which relate to effectively striking the ball, having to do with gripping the club, body position and stance. These factors can be implemented thoughtfully, but the aforementioned motions must be imprinted on the player's muscle memory so as to be precisely and consistently repeatable. It is of more than academic interest that the motions of hitting a baseball with a bat, or a tennis ball with a racquet, have the same motion sequence requirements for optimum impact.
A major portion of the time and effort a golfer invests in training is, or should be, devoted to analysing, correcting and practicing his or her swing. Most novices come to the game with flawed swing coordination, which is hopefully refined through practice, the advice of fellow players and observation of others. Since practicing a faulty swing tends to perpetuate its flaws, most serious players eventually resort to professional coaching for assistance. The coaching critique is necessarily conveyed in the form of specific "dos and don'ts" as needed to remedy a given swing problem. However, it is not easy for a player to re-conform motions according to critique, and it is even more difficult to carry what is learned over into actual play.
Devices are available for use as a training aid for various aspects of the swing. Incorporated into the aids is some type of mechanism to be activated by club velocity and/or position during the swing for evaluation of some part of the total motion. Such devices are generally intended to replicate the feel of swinging a conventional club, so they have a similar weight and length. This renders the device generally unsuitable to indoor use and rather difficult to carry about unobtrusively. Thus, the training aids presently available are useful in practicing to achieve correct execution of some portion of the swing. Integrating that portion into a smoothly coordinated total movement however, still depends upon driving range practice, the advice of fellow players and observation of others.
The first object of the present invention is therefore, to provide a device for a players use in training the muscle memory aspects of a golf swing as complete motion sequence, from the beginning of the backswing through striking the ball. A second object is to provide such a device in a compact form so as to be usable indoors and also easy and unobtrusive to carry. A third object is to provide this device in a form that will be usable for swing training for other sports such as tennis and baseball and yet another object is that this device be simple, easily and inexpensively manufactured.
The present invention results from the determination that, in spite of the previous teachings of others in the art, an aid for swing training does not need to replicate the heft and feel of an actual club. Rather, the function of the training aid is to guidance and feedback so that the user is coached by its use to follow the proper motion sequence and made aware of any tendency to deviate therefrom. It was determined, through experimentation in development of the present invention, that muscle memory is taught by motion sequence only and that the effort required is irrelevant. Thus, "heft and feel" were discarded as design parameters in favor of purely functional considerations and the weight and length of the present invention are incidental figures.
Following the above considerations, the training aid of the present invention is preferably a tube, but may be a shaft, of a length which may be carried about unobtrusively. A small weight is confined to move freely along a prescribed length of the tube or shaft, so as to impact a stop at the outer end of its travel. A handle portion is provided at the opposite end and a second stop at the handle portion limits the travel of the weight. This length of free travel, and its placement relative to the handle end are such that, when a player uses the aid in going through the motion sequence of a proper swing, the weight strikes the outer stop so as to make a sharp sound at what would be the point of impact with the ball. Having set aside considerations of heft and feel, the handle portion must yet provide for a conventional two-handed grip, so the overall length of the aid is essentially determined by transit time of the weight from handle end stop to outer end stop. The aid coaches the player by firstly, requiring that the weight strike the handle end stop slightly prior to the top of the backswing, before starting the down swing, secondly, by making the player keep his or her head down to judge the impact timing, and thirdly, by rewarding only a properly executed swing motion sequence with the impact sound at the bottom of the swing. If the motion sequence is incorrect, the weight strikes before the bottom of the swing. A positioning cue may also be provided in the form of a colored tab at the handle end. The sight of this cue reminds the player to rotate his or her hands at the top of the backswing so as to hide the color from peripheral vision and effectively align the "club" with the target, to be properly positioned for the beginning of the downswing. The compact length permits using the aid at home or in the office. Reducing the weight, as compared to a regular club, makes many more practice repetitions possible without tiring.